Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

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The Choir of Westminster Abbey under their inspirational director James O’Donnell delves into the Abbey’s vaults for this latest fascinating disc. The triumphant mood of the Restoration required much glorious liturgical music, and the Abbey was ho ...» More

'It is hard to speak too highly of this enterprise … much enjoyment to be had' (Gramophone)'the performances from The King’s Consort and its Choir, the Choir of New College and a starry line-up of soloists have such qualities of concentratio ...» More

Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; My glory, and the lifter up of my head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, And he heard me out of his holy hill. I laid me down and slept; I awaked; For the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people That have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: For thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek-bone; Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: Thy blessing is upon thy people.

Lord, how are they increased that trouble me. Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, there is no help for him in God. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of my head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek-bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people.

Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; My glory, and the lifter up of my head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, And he heard me out of his holy hill. I laid me down and slept; I awaked; For the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people That have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: For thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek-bone; Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: Thy blessing is upon thy people.

Lord, how are they increased that trouble me. Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, there is no help for him in God. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of my head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek-bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people.

The rubrics for Evensong of the 1549 prayer book and its 1559 revision have little to say about music beyond observing that certain elements (including the Lessons) may be ‘saied or song’. It was the post-Restoration 1662 Book of Common-Prayer which first included the instruction, following the Third Collect (‘Lighten our darkness’), that ‘In Quires and Places where they sing, here followeth the Anthem’. It was the 1662 service that would become familiar to the then three-year-old Henry Purcell, whose five-part Latin setting of Psalm 3, Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei, demonstrates a much more vivid, indeed theatrical (Purcell was to compose the first great English opera, Dido and Aeneas) approach to text setting: this is real ‘word painting’. It must be doubtful, though, whether Purcell’s composition, dating from around 1680, was directed toward Anglican use in the England of his time, and it has been conjectured that the piece may have been intended for the Catholic chapel of Catherine of Modena, daughter of the future James II and his Catholic wife Mary.